Portal de Turismo de Castilla y León

Welcome to the Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente Castile and Leon Iberian Wolf Centre.

This audio guide is divided into audio clips with the information related to the different rooms. The end of each clip is marked by a sound like the one you will hear now, with just one to move on to the information in the next clip:

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And two for a change of room. [SOUND DEMO] [SOUND DEMO]

You can choose to move on to the next audio clip after the sound.

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As with the other park houses located all over the region of Castile and Leon, this is the recommended gateway to these natural areas. The staff in this centre will inform you about the Iberian wolf and help you plan your visit.

You are in front of the entrance to the Wolf Centre.

It provides information on iconic species and habitats to help you identify and appreciate the cultural and natural heritage in these places in a respectful way, and by doing so foster the conservation and appreciation of biodiversity and cultural heritage.

The Iberian Wolf Centre is a unique ecological efficient building which is integrated into the surrounding area and is built in a style reminiscent of old pastoral buildings. Visitors are invited to take an exciting journey around the exhibition, which shows how humans and wolves have lived together.

The stone construction here mimics a type of trap that was traditionally used in the area to capture wolves.

The building is located on a mountain that is open to the public in the Sierra de la Culebra Regional Hunting Reserve, in the village of Robledo de Sanabria, in the municipality of Puebla de Sanabria in Zamora.

It is an open-plan circular space, with a smooth floor, stone walls and a high ceiling with skylights that allow light from outside to enter. There is a circular metal structure in the centre of the room that forms benches where you can sit down. The backs are topped with silhouettes of animals, cut out of the sheet metal.

There is a two-metre panel with a picture of two wolves at the entrance on the right. On the same wall is the entrance to the toilets, and a few metres after that, a display case with souvenirs and access to the ramp to enter the reception lobby.

There are silhouettes of a wolf chasing stags and deer on the way up the ramp.

The ramp ends in a square space with the entrance on the right.

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You are in the hallway, with the Centre's exhibition rooms leading off it. As you enter, the visitor's information desk and the green store where you can buy local products and souvenirs of the Iberian wolf are on the left.

The panel showing the layout of the wolf centre is in this area, as well as the outdoor enclosures where the wolves live. The observatories, pools, quarantine area and the administration and veterinary care unit are marked in different colours. The paths leading to the observatories where you can see Iberian wolves in semi-wild conditions are marked with tracks: they are the Tenadón, Chiviteros and Peñedo observatories and the walkway.

An audiovisual display shows the female wolf Jara giving birth at the Castile and Leon Iberian Wolf Centre. There were three cubs in this litter, which is common for a mother giving birth for the first time. The audiovisual display shows how the mother eats the amniotic sac, which is natural and instinctive behaviour in these animals.

The video includes images from the mother's first contractions until the cubs are one month old.

Wolf cubs are always dark in colour when they are born, and obtain the brownish colour of adult wolves when they are 4 or 5 months old. They are born with their eyes closed, their ears glued to their heads and they are unable to make any sounds, so the care they receive from their mother in the first few days of their lives is crucial.

In the wild, the rest of the pack will help the cubs by bringing them food, playing with them, and teaching them to hunt and follow animal tracks.

Like dogs, they have a very rich and distinctive range of gestures for communication, combining the position of the tail and ears with noises, gestures, positions of their body and howling.

Their howling reinforces the bonds between them, and lets the pack communicate with each other and let other packs know the boundaries of their territory.

Did you know that like dogs, wolves bury their food to store it for later?

The visit to the various exhibition spaces begins here. Head for the first room located opposite and slightly to the left of the reception area.

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This room is painted green, has no windows and is illuminated by lights in the ceiling. There are two backless wooden benches in the centre, and the walls are full of texts containing information and there are objects on display.

The first wall, on the right as you enter, talks about diversity, with a text that reads: "Diversity. Of forms, materials, breeds and words. Of wolf traps that try to outwit them. Of dogs that confront them. Of shelters that protect shepherds and flocks. Of uses, as a last resort."

The first panel starting from the end of the wall talks about the medicinal uses made of various parts of the wolf. The next panel shows the various types of shelters and huts used by shepherds all over the Iberian Peninsula. The next shows the various types of dogs used for protecting livestock in Europe, such as the mastiff. The next panel on the right, closest to the entrance, shows the wide range of traps used to hunt wolves in days gone by. These include the circular goat trap, which is the inspiration for the shape of this Wolf Centre.

Goat traps are passive traps the size of a bullring that were built in hillside areas. The walls inside them converge, and there were some small gaps on the outside so that wolves could get in. The animal had no way of escaping once inside.

The trap was so named because a kid was usually put inside as bait to attract wolves.

There are various depictions of the wolf engraved in stone on the wall to the left of the door, including wolves as toy heroes and villains, and the central figures in books and films.

Herding tools, clubs and the "chuzo", a weapon used for defence against wolves, are displayed on the next wall. Next, on a shelf, some wolf collars are on display. These are spiked collars that dogs wore around their necks to protect them from wolves. There are some leather and esparto slings, and a Leonese bullroarer on the bottom shelf.

On the next shelf, there is a figurine of St. Anthony with a piglet at his side, some shepherd's figurines of the Virgin Mary, some wolf's fangs on an amulet and a stele on a piece of slate. Interestingly, in some places wolves' bones were used as clappers of cowbells for protection, or wolves' molars were set in silver to protect children or to cure deafness.

On the bottom shelf, there is an oak and metal trap used on the Cantabrian coast, probably of medieval origin.

The last two shelves contain items that make sounds, including a ratchet, a sarronca, horns, shells and cowbells. Shepherds used all of these to chase wolves away.

On the last wall, opposite the entrance, the wolf is depicted as evil, and the devil.

On display are two pre-Roman fibulae, which are brooches for fastening clothes; a tessera from Castro de las Rabas; a copy of a Romanesque corbel with a wolf's head; a replica misericord from the choir of the Cathedral of Ciudad Rodrigo; ceramics and a Celtiberian war horn.

Images of pastoral and livestock farming customs, wolf-related festivals, mastiffs and traps are shown on a screen on the same wall. The Iberian masquerade festival, a mixture of religious and pagan traditions, takes place on solstices.

Turn around and leave the lupine material heritage room.

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Continue your visit along the corridor, leaving the reception on the right.

The door to your left leads to the audiovisual room, which is equipped with chairs that let visitors enjoy the video being screened.

Start the visit with the map on the left wall to get your bearings. The Iberian Wolf Centre in Robledo de Sanabria is marked on the map, within a green space that represents the Sierra de la Culebra Regional Hunting Reserve, which gets its name because it looks like a snake from the sky.

This is an area of more than 67,000 hectares, which has one particularly interesting feature: the presence of the Iberian wolf there, and the fact that it is the area with the highest density of wolves in Western Europe. This reserve includes 12 municipalities and 41 settlements.

Thanks to the work of famous researchers, including Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, the wolf ceased to be considered vermin and became a species for hunting. In other words, it could be hunted on a controlled basis, although today hunting the wolf is prohibited.

This map shows the Sierra de la Culebra and its proximity to the Sanabria Lake Natural Park and the Segundera and Porto mountain ranges, and Montesinho Natural Park in Portugal.

Following the corridor, there are typical trees of the area in some display cabinets, including oak and chestnut trees. Something is hiding camouflaged among the trees, which looks like a tree but is not a tree. It is antlers from stags and deer, which are not to be confused with horns, since horns are the bony extensions that bulls, cows and goats have. Antlers, which are made of calcium, are shed by male roe and red deer in March and early April every year. They grow a completely new set of antlers again after a few months.

Continuing on your visit, there is a corridor on the left that leads you to a Zamora blanket on the wall on the right, which is the entrance to the intangible heritage room.

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After the Zamora blanket, you enter the audiovisual room where a video lasting a few minutes in which several people talk about the wolf is screened. The video entitled "Words in the night, the wolf's intangible heritage," shows a filandón, which was the time when families gathered around the fireplace to tell stories while spinning yarn.

The room is shaped like a pentagon, with wooden benches on the left and right walls as you enter and a smaller one in the centre of the room.

Leave the room by turning left into the corridor.

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This area contains an exhibition of the ethnography of the Culebra mountains: the cloak that shepherds used to protect themselves in the mountains, and a typical apron with a distaff in a frame on the wall.

Next, on the same wall, on a table and on a shelf, are iron tools used by livestock farmers, including an axe, a pair of shears for shearing, a horseshoe, a sickle and a jug. On a second table are various displays of stones found in the region.

Continue your visit to the next room by turning left. The entrance to the laboratory is on the right.

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The laboratory, a room dedicated to knowledge and husbandry of the wolf, begins on the right. It is a rhomboidal space, with white walls, full of posters and information. The ceiling is high and it has a skylight that illuminates the room.

In the centre of the room, there is a wooden table with a genuine Iberian wolf skin and skulls.

It is a winter coat, which has a double layer of fur, which falls out when the temperature rises. The outer layer of coarse, greasy fur is resistant to water and protects the wolf. The undercoat is the softer, woolly layer of fur underneath, which provides heat and forms an additional layer of warmth.

The skin is about one and a half metres long and brownish in colour, with dark or black stripes on the front of the two front legs, a dark spot on the tail and another one around the withers, known as the "saddle". There are some white spots on the muzzle called "whiskers".​

There are also four wolf skulls and a mastiff skull on the table. Although the skulls of wolves and dogs may appear to be similar, there are distinctive characteristics which identify them. Take a look at the differences, which include wider zygomatic arches, a more pronounced sagittal crest, larger carnassials and longer, more powerful fangs.

To the right of the table, on a shelf, is a real skeleton from a wolf.

On the walls there are panels discussing how to preserve and live with the wolf, their character, their way of life, preventing attacks, meeting them and enjoying the environment without altering it.

On a table on the wall to the left, there is an interactive display entitled "What we know about the wolf", which summarises all the information on the panels in the room. It is an interactive manual display without audio.

There are several panels with information about the wolf's life on a cork panel behind the screen.

Wolves usually live in packs that rarely contain more than 12 individuals. This variation is directly related to the availability of resources, as the more the resources there are, the larger the pack tends to be. The packs with the highest density of individuals in the entire Iberian Peninsula have been identified in the Sierra de la Culebra, due to the abundance and diversity of the resources available.

In its social dynamics, each pack establishes a pronounced hierarchy in which each individual occupies a specific place. This structure is led by an alpha male and an alpha female, who form the only breeding pair and play a very important role within the dynamics of the pack.

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The next panel is called "The wolf's annual cycle".

Wolves are monoestrous animals, which means that they experience only one mating season per year, which is usually around March. Before mating, they go through a pre-breeding period during which they experience changes in their behaviour related to dominance and definition of their territory, which reinforce the hierarchy within the pack. After mating, if fertilisation has been successful, the gestation period is approximately 60 days, and the cubs are born in late May or early June.

Another panel talks about conservation of the wolf.

Under normal conditions in the wild, 40% of wolves die before their first birthday, and if they reach adulthood, they will die when they 5 or 6 years old. Because of the good conditions and conservation, they can live for up to 7 years in the Sierra de la Culebra mountains.

The last panel discusses the evolution of the wolf in the Iberian Peninsula.

It is estimated that there were about 10,000 wolves on the Peninsula at the beginning of the twentieth century. At that time, wolves were considered vermin, and laws were passed that encouraged the population to kill them either with poison, traps or by hunting.

Thanks to the work of Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, the wolf began to be considered a species for hunting rather than vermin in 1970. It is estimated that there were only about 300 wolves left by the 1970s, and they were only located in the north-west, which reduced their genetic variety.

The wolves were distributed in several foci from the 1990s onwards. The Iberian wolf, whose Latin name is Canis lupus signatus, lives in the north-west, while the Italian wolf variety Canis lupus lives in Los Pirineos.

There is a real possibility of the Iberian and Italian wolves coming into contact, and this may have happened in the past, when the populations of both subspecies were stable. These subspecies are reproductively compatible and can lead to fertile hybrids. In genetic terms, increased genetic variability is associated with a higher probability of survival. Ultimately, these situations have to be caused by nature, and any assessment of whether it would be positive or negative is focused on genetic considerations.

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Items used to study and observe the Iberian wolf are displayed on the last long wooden table in the laboratory.

Because of their cunning, elusive behaviour and fear of humans, it is extremely difficult to find wolves in the wild. Non-intrusive methods can be used to detect the presence of wolves in a specific area, including the identification of fur remains, the remains of prey they have consumed, scat containing fur from the wolves' usual prey, scat with characteristic parasites, tracks and scratches, among others.

When scientific studies are carried out on territorial distribution, daily activity and other aspects related to an individual, a wolf is tagged with a tracking collar. These collars, equipped with advanced technology, provide reliable data without significantly affecting the animal's activities or the environment. The collars have a predetermined battery life and shortly before they run out of power, they automatically detach themselves from the animal's neck, continuing to emit signals so that they can be retrieved and to prevent them from becoming environmental waste.

Other items used are photo-trap cameras, which take a photograph when a wolf activates the motion sensor when it passes in front of it, and binoculars.

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On the left wall of the entrance to the room, there is a map showing the evolution of wolves around the world.

The canid family, which includes the modern-day wolf, originated in North America approximately 400 million years ago. Over time, this family has undergone a diversification that has led to the recognition of its genus and 35 species, which are widely distributed in geographic terms.

The size of canids varies considerably, ranging from small desert foxes weighing as little as 1 kilogram to Arctic wolves weighing over 70 kilograms. These carnivores are generally social, and opportunistic hunters specialising in the pursuit of prey in open spaces.

Now leave the laboratory.

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Continue along the corridor to the left. On this first wall there are some one-metre high displays with tracks of various mammals that inhabit the Sierra de la Culebra mountains, such as stags and deer, and mustelids including otters, badgers, martens, squirrels and wildcats.

There are several panels that tell the story of the relationship between humans and wolves on the wall at the back. In the centre of the panel there is a screen which shows a silent video about livestock farming.

Man's conflict with the wolf has always been over the latter's attacks on livestock. Wolves are predators, and they instinctively hunt prey. Their diet consists mainly of animal protein, although they sometimes supplement it with plants.

Imagine a group of wolves in the forest out hunting and coming across a group of deer. At first, they will target and chase young, sick or weak animals, creating a series of hormones, including adrenaline, which stimulates them.

In the forest, the group of deer will flee and the wolf will hunt only one prey, but when a wolf gains access to an area with a flock of sheep, the energy it needs to capture a wild prey is not consumed and its instinct leads it to continue killing the flock of sheep, which cannot escape.

Their attacks on livestock raise several dilemmas about protection, the use of fences, the role of the shepherd in the herd and the use of dogs for protection.

At the end of the corridor, a square room opens up on the left, which is the livestock farming room.

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Upon entering, you will find yourself in a square room with three backless wooden benches in the centre.

The left side of the panel tells you about the benefits of extensive livestock farming, in the Sierra de la Culebra mountains and throughout the region.

One of the advantages of this type of livestock farming is that it clears the forests, which helps to prevent fires.

Extensive livestock farming contributes to environmental conservation by maintaining biodiversity and healthy ecosystems. It also fosters rural development by providing employment and economic sustainability in remote areas. From the perspective of animal welfare, this approach allows the animals to express their natural behaviour and reduces stress.

In environmental terms, extensive livestock farming can contribute to mitigating climate change by creating healthy grasslands that sequester carbon.

However, these benefits depend on sustainable management and ethical considerations related to animal welfare and local environmental impacts.

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The background noise during the tour will tell you if you are in daytime or at night. The wolf's nocturnal howls tell you that they appear through the slits in the windows adjacent to the intangible heritage, laboratory and extensive livestock farming rooms.

This audio clip concludes your visit to the Iberian Wolf Centre, where you have been able to learn a little more about the life of this animal that is so important for the ecosystem and that has been so heavily persecuted throughout history.

Thank you for your visit.